Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Personal-care home closed in Montco

More than 50 residents from a personal-care home in Willow Grove were relocated yesterday after state officials shut it down in response to the recent deaths of two residents.

More than 50 residents from a personal-care home in Willow Grove were relocated yesterday after state officials shut it down in response to the recent deaths of two residents.

Stacey Witalec, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Welfare, yesterday said the deaths at Willow Crest Manor, 240 Fitzwatertown Rd., possibly happened because the two residents "were not given proper medical treatment."

Witalec did not identify the two people who died. One of them, a 24-year-old, died under "suspicious" circumstances, she said. She did not elaborate.

Witalec said the owner of the facility, Anand P. Mittal, 58, who goes by the name David, had been banned from entering the facility. He showed up yesterday, and had to be escorted off the grounds by uniformed officers, she said.

Calls made to the facility last night were not answered, and Mittal could not be reached.

Mittal previously had been arrested and charged with choking an elderly Parkinson's patient in August, Witalec said in an interview. Mittal denied that allegation in a news article published Sept. 3 in the Intelligencer, a Bucks County newspaper.

"The facility has a rampant history of medication violation issues as well as serious financial issues that directly relate to the health and safety of residents," said Witalec.

In violation reports issued after inspections, on Dec. 2, 4 and 5, and on Dec. 8, the state alleged substandard care, citing such conditions as neglected patients, filthy rooms, and failure to follow guidelines.

In one case, a patient identified only as Resident No. 1 died after being transported to a hospital Nov. 28. Resident No. 1 had "multiple open, weeping ulcers on the lower extremities."

The other resident died Saturday at the home.

The home, the report states, failed to give the resident Medrol prescribed by a physician to treat bronchitis/asthma exacerbation.